The following report details the activities of the Gemmological Commission over the past year. Our principle role within CIBJO and the greater gem and jewellery industry is improving the transparency of operations at gemmological laboratories and the confidence of consumers in the reports they issue.

The commission recently completed an extended edition of the CIBJO Gemmological Laboratories Blue Book, listing essential management and technical requirements, test protocols and accepted nomenclature, describing what it takes to run a gemmological laboratory.

CIBJO intends using the Gemmological Laboratories Blue Book to identify laboratories that commit to meeting with the standards it has set.

Proposal for CIBJO listing of gem laboratories

There have in recent years been concerns expressed about gemstone reports issued by different labs for the same stones, with different and sometime contradictory findings. This has brought into question the qualifications of the laboratories issuing the reports, taking into consideration that, worldwide, there is very little official oversight as to what are the requirements for an organisation to claim to be a gem testing laboratory.

I would note that gemmological laboratories are increasingly considered an integral part of the gemstone trade and a good number of them are valuable and hard-working CIBJO members.

To remedy the situation, there have been calls in industry circles for CIBJO to devise a system by which laboratories meeting minimum criteria would be listed by our organisation. If such a system is implemented, it has been contended, it may have a positive impact on consumer confidence and on gemstone sales.

Over many decades, CIBJO has developed standards for the gemstone industry and published these in its Blue Books and various guides. To adopt these standards demands a high level of integrity, through the proper and clear use of recommended nomenclature and an elevated degree of transparency.

The CIBJO Gemmological Laboratories Blue Book is one of these documents. Essentially, it provides guidelines for the management and technical operations of gem labs, providing gemmological specificity that expands upon ISO Standard 17025, which is the internationally-recognised management systems accreditation for testing and calibration laboratories, enabling them to demonstrate that they operate competently and generate valid results.

The CIBJO Gemmological Laboratories Blue Book suggests best practices and general requirements for the competence to carry out tests, grading and/or internal calibrations, on instruments, coloured gemstones, diamonds and pearls, and they are pertinent regardless of a gemmological laboratory’s size or scope.

It is proposed that CIBJO use the content of the CIBJO Gemmological Laboratory Blue Book as the basis for listing laboratories, which by a signed proclamation they will declare that they adhere to its requirements, as well as implementing the standards, principles and language of all the CIBJO Blue Books, and in particular the Blue Books relating to coloured gemstones, pearls, diamonds and coral.

It also has been been proposed that, in the event of a result that is disputed by another listed laboratory, a mechanism will be created by which the laboratories and the client(s) are peacefully able resolve the issues.

The benefit of such a system is that laboratories with quality management systems in place, which adhere to the clauses and overall content of the CIBJO Gemmological Laboratories Blue Book, can be clearly identified by the trade and consumers alike.

The system will also encourage openness and transparency in a sphere of operations that has grown significantly in scope over recent decades, where the results given in reports often have significant impact on the value of the item being reported upon.

The conditions and practical implications of this proposal are still under discussion, but we appear close to agreement.